Every character uses the same Life Bar. For each point of lethal or non-lethal damage a character suffers in combat, you fill one pip of the Life Bar, starting from the right and going to the left.

For example, if you suffered seven points of lethal damage, your Life Bar would look like this:

The Life Bar

LETHALDAMAGE

LightWounded● ● ● ● ●

ModeratelyWounded● ● ○ ○ ○

SeverelyWounded○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Disabled○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Dying○ ○ ○ ○ ○

NON-LETHALDAMAGE

NotAffected○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Jolted○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Jarred○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Staggered○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Unconscious

As your Life Bar’s pips fill, you acquire Wound Conditions. When the first pip in a Wound Column is filled, you gain that
condition. For example, the character with the Life Bar in Table 2 suffers the Moderately Wounded condition.

Wound Condition

The following is a description of the various Wound Conditions.

The effects of lethal and non-lethal damage are cumulative.

Lethal

Lightly Wounded: You have suffered some lethal damage, but are not impaired by it.

Disabled: You suffer a -3 penalty on all attack rolls, defense, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws. You can only take a single move or standard action each turn (but not both, nor can you take full-round actions). You can take move actions without further injuring yourself, but if you perform any standard action (or any other strenuous action) you take 1 point of damage after the completing the act.

Dying: You suffer a -5 penalty on all attack rolls, defense, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws. You are unconscious. You can take no actions. You lose 1 lethal pip every round. This continues until you die or become stable.

Dead: Once you run out of pips in the Dying column and suffer any additional lethal damage, you are dead.

Staggered: You suffer a -3 penalty on all attack rolls, defense, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws. You can only take a single move or standard action each turn (but not both, nor can you take full-round actions).

Unconscious: Once you run out of pips in the Staggered column and suffer any additional non-lethal damage, you are unconscious.

Constitution modifiers, armor bonuses, and natural armor bonuses are familiar to users of the d20 system and require no explanation. Use the table below to determine a character’s Soak modifier for size.

Size Modifiers to Soak

Size

Soak

Fine

-16

Diminutive

-12

Tiny

-8

Small

-4

Medium

+0

Large

+4

Huge

+8

Gargantuan

+12

Colossal

+16

For example, a Large monster with 18 Constitution and +4 natural armor, would have Soak 12. A human with 12 Constitution,
wearing full plate mail (+8 armor bonus), would have Soak 9.

Toughness: The Toughness feat adds +1 Soak, rather than +3 hit points. In this system, you can acquire Toughness no more
than three times.

Generic Damage Reduction: Characters with generic damage reduction (i.e., damage reduction that looks like #/- and cannot
be overcome by special weapons) convert that damage reduction into Soak on a one-for-one basis. For example, a 13th level
barbarian with Damage Reduction 3/- in the standard rules gains +3 Soak in the revised Grim-n-Gritty rules.

As in the original Grim-n-Gritty rules, Defense replaces Armor Class as the mechanic by which a character avoids being hit in
combat. Defense represents a character’s ability to roll with blows and dodge attacks.

These are the rules for resolving attacks in the revised Grim-n-Gritty system.

The Attack Roll

An attack roll represents your attempt to strike your opponent on your turn in a round. When you make an attack roll, you roll a
d20 and add your attack bonus. (Other modifiers may apply to this roll.) Your opponent rolls a d20 and adds his defense bonus.
(Other modifiers may apply to your opponent’s roll.) If your result equals or exceeds your target’s defense roll, you hit and deal
damage.

Automatic Misses and Hits: A natural 1 (the d20 comes up 1) on an attack roll is always a miss. A natural 20 (the d20 comes
up 20) is always a hit.

Critical Hits: In the revised Grim-n-Gritty system, critical hits do not occur when you roll a certain number on the d20.
Instead, they happen when you roll a certain amount of points higher than your target (usually 10 points). See the section on
Critical Hits, below, for a more detailed description.

Immobile and Helpless Targets: Immobilized or helpless targets automatically roll a 1 on the defense roll.

You roll the damage dice of the attack. Apply modifiers for enhancement bonuses, Strength, and the like. For every point you
beat your opponent’s defense roll, add +1 to the damage inflicted. Apply a Size modifier (per table below) to damage inflicted by
melee weapons, unarmed strikes, and the natural physical attack forms of creatures.

If the result is positive, your target fills in one pip on the Life Bar for every point of damage inflicted. Otherwise, you cause no
damage to your target. For example, if your attack inflicts 8 points of damage, your target fills in 8 pips on the Life Bar.

Critical Hits

If your attack roll beats your opponent’s roll by a certain amount, usually 10 or more points, you may inflict a critical hit.
Critical hits let you inflict special conditions on your target (such as stunned or dazed), bypass bonuses to Soak, or disable body
parts.

Determining Critical Threat Range

In the revised Grim-n-Gritty system, your critical threat range is the amount your attack roll has to exceed your opponent’s
defense roll. If you reach this amount, you threaten a critical hit and roll to confirm it with a second attack v. defense roll. Use
the following table to determine a weapon’s Grim-n-Gritty threat range.

Critical Threat Ranges

Original Threat Range

Grim-n-Gritty Threat Range

20

10 or more

19-20

8 or more

18-20

6 or more

17-20

4 or more

16-20

2 or more

15-20

0 or more (any hit)

For example, you wield a great sword. In the original rules, you would threaten a critical hit if you rolled a natural 19 or
20. In the Grim-n-Gritty system, you would threaten a critical hit if you rolled 8 or more points higher than your opponent’s
defense result.

Critical Hit Effects

Once you threaten a critical hit, you select an effect for the hit. Then, you roll attack v. defense to confirm it. (Some types of
critical hits are more difficult to confirm than others and apply a penalty to the confirmation roll.) If you win the confirmation
roll, your opponent performs a saving throw v. DC 10 + ½ your base attack bonus + your Strength modifier (if a melee attack) or
your Dexterity modifier (if a ranged attack) + any enhancement bonuses for your weapon + any critical hit effect bonuses for your
weapon. If your opponent fails the save, he suffers the effect of the critical hit.

The critical hit effect bonus depends on the original system’s critical multiplier for a weapon. If a weapon has a x2 multiplier, it
has a +0 critical hit effect bonus. A weapon with a x3 multiplier gains a +5 critical hit effect bonus. A weapon with x4, +10.

Bypass Natural Armor: (-8 confirmation penalty.) You strike a vulnerable point and ignore the target’s natural armor bonus to Soak when determining the damage for your attack. Your target gets a Reflex save to avoid this effect.

Bypass Size Modifier: (-4 confirmation penalty.) You strike a vulnerable point and ignore the target’s size modifier to Soak when determining the damage for your attack. Your target gets a Reflex save to avoid this effect.

Daze Target: Your target is dazed for one round if it fails a Fortitude save against your critical hit.

Disable Arm: (-4 confirmation penalty.) If your target fails a Fortitude save, its arm is disabled. This causes a –2 penalty to attack rolls, Strength checks, and all skill checks based on arm use, such as Climb, Craft, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Forgery, Alchemy, Heal, Open Lock, Pick Pocket, Swim, and Use Rope checks. If all arms are disabled, the victim cannot manipulate items.

Disable Leg: (-4 confirmation penalty.) If your target fails a Fortitude save, its leg is disabled. This causes a –2 penalty to defense rolls, Reflex saves, Dexterity checks, and all skill checks based on leg use, such as Climb, Swim, Jump, Ride, Tumble, Balance, and Move Silently checks. The victim cannot run or charge. If all legs are disabled, the victim can only move by crawling and loses any Dexterity bonus to Defense.

Disable Head: (-8 confirmation penalty.) If your target fails a Fortitude save, it is stunned for one round, and its head is disabled. This causes a –2 penalty to all attack rolls, defense rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws.

Stun Target: (-4 confirmation penalty.) Your target is stunned for one round if it fails a Fortitude save against your critical hit.

To cause any effect other than a “bypass,” your attack must inflict at least one point of damage to your target, after all damage
reduction, energy resistance, Soak, and other forms of protection are applied.

These rules describe how a character heals in the revised Grim-n-Gritty system.

Natural Healing

A character recovers one lost lethal life pip per day of rest if Lightly Wounded or Moderately Wounded. Otherwise, a character
recovers one lost lethal life pip per week. Successful long-term care from a trained healer doubles the rate of recovery.

A character recovers one lost non-lethal life pip per minute of rest, even if unconscious.

Supernatural Healing

Healing spells have the following effects on a character in the revised Grim-n-Gritty system:

Cure Minor Wounds: Recover one lost life pip (both lethal and non-lethal).

Cure Light Wounds: Recover two lost life pips.

Cure Moderate Wounds: Recover 1d4+1 lost life pips.

Cure Serious Wounds: Recover 2d4+1 lost life pips.

Cure Critical Wounds: Recover 3d4+1 lost life pips.

Dying and Stabilization

On the next turn after a character reaches the Dying column on the Life Bar and on all subsequent turns, roll d% to see whether
the dying character becomes stable. He has a 10% chance of becoming stable. If he does not, he suffers 1 point of damage. (A
character that is unconscious or dying cannot use any special action that changes the initiative count on which his action occurs.)

Once a character fills in all the pips in the Dying column and suffers at least one more point of damage, he dies.

You can keep a dying character from losing any more pips and make him stable with a DC 15 Heal check.

If any sort of healing cures the dying character of even 1 point of damage, he stops losing hit points and becomes stable.

A stable character who has been tended by a healer or who has been magically healed eventually regains consciousness and
recovers hit points naturally. If the character has no one to tend him, however, his life is still in danger, and he may yet slip away.

Recovering with Help: One hour after a tended, dying character becomes stable, roll d%. He has a 10% chance of becoming
conscious, at which point he is disabled. (He automatically recovers all lost life pips in the Dying column.) If he remains
unconscious, he has the same chance to revive and become disabled every hour. Even if unconscious, he recovers hit points
naturally.

Recovering without Help: A character who becomes stable on his own (by making the 10% roll while dying) and who has no
one to tend to him still loses life, just at a slower rate. He has a 10% chance each hour of becoming conscious and disabled. Each
time he misses his hourly roll to become conscious, he suffers 1 point of damage.

Disabled Body Parts

One week is necessary to recover from a disabled body part. Successful long-term care from a trained healer causes recovery in
1d4+1 days.

Here are some additional rules you might want to implement when you use the system.

Dexterity as Prime Attack Statistic

This variant rule makes it more difficult for big and slow creatures to hit a character, though they still inflict massive damage.

Strength no longer affects a character’s attack rolls. It only increases a character’s damage.

Dexterity modifies a character’s attack bonuses for both ranged and melee attacks.

In this variant, you should change the Weapon Finesse feat. Let it permit you to substitute your Dexterity modifier for Strength
when you roll damage with light weapons.

You should also add the following feat:

Brute Force [General]
You can use your massive strength to great effect against puny enemies.

Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +1.

Benefit: With a two-handed weapon, you may use your Strength modifier instead of your Dexterity modifier on attack rolls.

Special: A fighter may select Brute Force as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Maximum Damage Dice

Because characters have so few life pips, you can place a maximum cap to the base damage dice rolled for an attack: 4d.

If your attack uses more than four dice, you convert the additional dice into a damage modifier, per the table below.

Damage Dice Modifiers

Die Size

Damage Bonus per Die over 4d

d4 or less

+1 per die

d6

+2 per die

d8

+3 per die

d10

+4 per die

d12

+5 per die

d20

+6 per die

For example, in the standard rules, the breath of a red dragon at great wyrm age inflicts 24d10 damage. In the revised Grim-n-
Gritty system, it causes 4d10+80 damage. (Best to seek cover!) A fireball that inflicts 8d6 in the standard rules causes 4d6+8 in
the revised Grim-n-Gritty.

Flat Damage for Sneak Attacks

In this variant, convert each d6 of sneak attack damage into a flat +2 damage bonus.

For example, a rogue with a +8d6 sneak attack inflicts +16 damage with a sneak attack in this system.

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